gossamern.adj.

Brit.

/ˈɡɒsəmə/, U.S.

/ˈɡɑsəmər/

Forms: Middle English gosesomer(e, Middle English–1500s gossom(m)er, Middle English gossomyre, gossummer, 1500s–1600s gossamour, 1600s gosimore, gossamire, gossamore, gossem-, -im-, -ymear(e, -e(e)re, gothsemay, gothsimere, 1600s–1800s gossamere, 1700s gossimer, ( gosshemere, garsummer), 1600s– gossamer.

Etymology: Middle English gos(e)somer(e, apparently < goose n. + summer n.¹ Compare the synonymous English dialect summer-goose (Craven), summer-colt, German mädchensommer (lit. ‘girls' summer’), altweibersommer (‘old women's summer’); also German sommerfäden, Dutch zomerdraden, Swedish sommartråd, all literally ‘summer thread’. The reason for the appellation is somewhat obscure. It is usually assumed that goose in this compound refers to the ‘downy’ appearance of gossamer. But it is to be noted that German mädchen- , altweibersommer mean not only ‘gossamer’, but also a summer-like period in late autumn, a St. Martin's summer; that the obsolete Scots go-summer n. had the latter meaning; and that it is in the warm periods of autumn that gossamer is chiefly observed. These considerations suggest the possibility that the word may primarily have denoted a ‘St. Martin's summer’ (the time when geese were supposed to be in season: compare German Gänsemonat ‘geese-month’, November), and have been hence transferred to the characteristic phenomenon of the period. On this view summer-goose (which by etymologizing perversion appears also as summer-gauze) would be a transposition.

A. n.

a. A fine filmy substance, consisting of cobwebs, spun by small spiders, which is seen floating in the air in calm weather, esp. in autumn, or spread over a grassy surface: occasionally with a and plural, a thread or web of gossamer.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Arachnida > [noun] > order Aranea > member of (spider) > web > threads floating in air or spread on grass

gossamerc1325

kell?1523

spittle of the sun1568

air thread1753

summer goosea1800

flake1817

c1325 Gloss. W. de Biblesw. in T. Wright Voc. 147 Filaundre [glossed] gosesomer.

c1386 G. Chaucer Squire's Tale 251 On ebbe on flood on gossomer and on myst.

14.. Bewte will Shewe 5 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems 45 Twene gold and gossomer is grete difference.

c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 205/1 Gossomer, corrupcyon (H., P. gossummyr, or corrupcion), filandrya.

1599 W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet ii. v. 18 A louer may bestride the gossamours..And yet not fall.

1627 M. Drayton Nimphidia in Battaile Agincourt 120 Foure nimble Gnats the Horses were, Their Harnasses of Gossamere.

a1640 P. Massinger Guardian ii. v. 68 in 3 New Playes (1655) A Bed of Gossamire, And Damask Roses.

1659 Lady Alimony ii. v. sig. D2 Small threeds Thin-spun as is the subtil Gothsemay.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics i, in tr. Virgil Wks. 65 The filmy Gossamer now flitts no more.

1777 W. Mason Epist. Dr. Shebbeare 11 Let my numbers flutter light in air, As careless as the silken Gossimer.

1798 S. T. Coleridge Anc. Marinere iii, in W. Wordsworth & S. T. Coleridge Lyrical Ballads 17 Are those her Sails that glance in the Sun Like restless gossameres?

1813 P. B. Shelley Queen Mab i. 7 Let even the restless gossamer Sleep on the moveless air.

1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess v. 102 To trip a tigress with a gossamer.

1850 Ld. Tennyson In Memoriam xi. 16 All the silvery gossamers That twinkle into green and gold.

a1851 D. M. Moir October in Poet. Wks. (1852) I. 124 The gossamer..Now floats and now subsides upon the air.

1878 ‘G. Eliot’ College Breakfast Party in Macmillan's Mag. July 162 Weaving gossamer to trap the sun.

b. transferred and figurative. Applied to something light and flimsy as gossamer.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > that which is unimportant > insubstantial

triflec1290

vainc1330

winda1382

vapour1382

gossamer?a1400

visevase1481

good morrow1542

cobweb1579

superficial1579

puff1583

bladder1589

blathery1591

froth1594

bag of winda1599

moth1600

nominala1625

tumour1630

windlestraw1637

vacuity1648

balloon1656

blank1678

breath bubble1835

nominality1842

fluff1906

cotton candy1931

the world > existence and causation > existence > substantiality or concreteness > unsubstantiality or abstractness > [noun] > unsubstantiality or lack of substance > something lacking substance

breathc1275

winda1382

vapour1382

cloudc1384

gossamer?a1400

webc1400

comedown1583

bubble1598

anatomy1605

carcass1612

intentional1658

blank1678

ethereality1819

breath bubble1835

?a1400 Morte Arth. 2688 This es bot gosesomere, and gyffene one erles.

1658 J. Evelyn tr. N. de Bonnefons French Gardiner 194 It will..flie away like the down or Gossemeere of Dandelyon.

1827 T. Hood Plea Midsummer Fairies xii, in Plea Midsummer Fairies & Other Poems 7 Not measured out against fate's mortal knives, Like human gossamers.

1855 J. L. Motley Rise Dutch Republic III. vi. i. 392 A decent gossamer of conventional phraseology was ever allowed to float over the nakedness of unblushing treason.

1871 J. Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue v. 200 It would hardly have beseemed such a poet as Chaucer to bring the stroke of his measure down upon such a gossamer.

2. An extremely delicate kind of gauze.

ΘΚΠ

the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > textile fabric > textile fabric made from specific material > made from choice of fibres > [noun] > cotton or linen or silk

gauze1561

tiffany1601

gossamer1872

1872 W. Black Strange Adventures Phaeton i. 2 A dress of blue, with touches of white gossamer and fur about the tight wrists and neck.

a. In England: Originally, an advertising tradesman's name for a make of silk hat recommended as extremely light; hence, used jocularly for a hat generally.

ΘΚΠ

the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > headgear > [noun] > hat

hateOE

nab-cheat?1536

nab1673

kelp1736

mitre1807

tile1813

gossamer1836

cady1846

roof1857

roofer1859

pancake1875

lid1896

nudger1902

tit for tat1925

titfer1927

sky1944

the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > headgear > [noun] > hat > made of specific material > silk > types of

gossamer1836

goss1848

catskin1857

moloker1890

1836 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) xii. 118 Every hole lets in some air..wentilation gossamer I calls it.

1851 H. Mayhew London Labour II. 43/2 I have sold hats from 6d. to 3s. 6d., but very seldom 3s. 6d. The 3s. 6d. ones would wear out two new gossamers.

b. U.S. A name for a very light kind of waterproof.

ΚΠ

1888 Harper's Mag. June 139/1 Flinging off his gossamer, and hanging it up to drip into the pan of the hat rack.

4. attributive.

ΚΠ

1803 W. Bingley Animal Biogr. III. 456 The Gossamer Spider.

1816 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. (1843) II. 269 That sight occasionally noticed in fine days in the autumn, of webs—commonly called gossamer webs—covering the earth and floating in the air.

1844 T. Hood Haunted House iii, in Hood's Mag. Jan. 10 Across the door no gossamer festoon Swung pendulous.

1852 P. J. Bailey Festus (ed. 5) 12 The gossamer woof, beaded with dew.

1873 Sunday Mag. June 625 The little gossamer thread of hope.

1875 Encycl. Brit. II. 296/1 Gossamer lines are merely the threads left by small and immature spiders.

B. adj.

Of things, both material and immaterial: Light and flimsy as gossamer. Of persons: Frivolous, volatile.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > constitution of matter > weakness > [adjective]

tender?c1225

feeble1340

infirmc1374

slight1393

weakc1400

sperec1440

silly1587

unsound1590

immaterial1609

paper1615

unsubstantiala1617

reedy1628

slighty1662

insufficient1700

flimsy1702

bandbox1727

unconfirmed1752

insubstantial1767

gossamery1790

thread-paper1803

gossamer1806

slimsy1845

unendurable1879

bandboxy1891

the mind > attention and judgement > inattention > mental wandering > light-mindedness > [adjective]

lightlyeOE

lightOE

lightsomea1425

flying1509

light-minded?1529

tickle or light of the sear?1530

giddya1547

light-headed1549

gidded1563

giddish1566

fling-brained1570

tickle-headed1583

toyish1584

shallow1594

leger1598

corky1601

barmy1602

airy1609

unfirma1616

unballast1622

cork-brained1630

unballasted1644

kickshawa1655

unserious1655

unstudious1663

flirtishc1665

caper-witteda1670

shatter-headedc1686

corky-brained1699

flea-lugged1724

halokit1724

shatter-brained1727

scattered-brained1747

shatter-witted1775

flippant1791

butterfly-brained1796

scatter-brained1804

gossamer1806

shandy-pated1806

shattery1820

barmy-brained1823

papilionaceous1832

flirtatious1834

flirty1840

Micawberish1859

scatterheaded1867

flibberty-gibberty1879

thistledown1897

shatter-pated1901

trivial-minded1905

scattery1924

fizgig1928

ditzy1979

1806 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life I. i. 3 Pride and the plague of this gossamer frame of mine.

1843 E. Bulwer-Lytton Last of Barons I. i. ii. 31 [Girls] dancing round him, with..gossamer robes that brushed him as they circled.

1843 W. Youatt Horse (new ed.) xi. 239 The gossamer membrane of..the lobules of the lungs.

1852 H. Rogers Eclipse of Faith 15 He walks through this bleak world in such a gossamer gauze of transparent ‘spiritualism’ that [etc.].

1853 C. Dickens Bleak House xliii. 418 Such an unworldly, uncalculating, gossamer creature, is a relief to him.

1853 C. Brontë Villette II. xxvii. 276 There was a kind of gossamer happiness hanging in the air.

1857 W. Collins Dead Secret I. iii. i. 154 [He] sighed when the black gossamer ashes floated upward on the draught, and were lost in the chimney.

1879 Printing Trades Jrnl. xxix. 35 A gossamer tissue in imitation of the Japanese.

1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 26 Jan. 12/1 Light-weight [India-rubber] goods such as ladies wear, known as gossamer goods.

1893 Dublin Rev. Oct. 789 The original authors of this gossamer gossip.

in combination.1849 G. P. R. James Woodman I. v. 96 That gay gossamer looking youth, whom the young lord called Hungerford.

Derivatives

ˈgossamered adj. coated with gossamer, gossamer-like.

ΚΠ

1860 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters V. 100 Casting a gossamered grayness and softness of plumy mist along their surfaces far away.

1897 Q. Rev. Oct. 344 His [Mr. Austin Dobson's] society is one of picturesque ghosts; of history gossamered.

This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	gossamer
释义	gossamern.adj. Brit. /ˈɡɒsəmə/, U.S. /ˈɡɑsəmər/ Forms: Middle English gosesomer(e, Middle English–1500s gossom(m)er, Middle English gossomyre, gossummer, 1500s–1600s gossamour, 1600s gosimore, gossamire, gossamore, gossem-, -im-, -ymear(e, -e(e)re, gothsemay, gothsimere, 1600s–1800s gossamere, 1700s gossimer, ( gosshemere, garsummer), 1600s– gossamer. Etymology: Middle English gos(e)somer(e, apparently < goose n. + summer n.¹ Compare the synonymous English dialect summer-goose (Craven), summer-colt, German mädchensommer (lit. ‘girls' summer’), altweibersommer (‘old women's summer’); also German sommerfäden, Dutch zomerdraden, Swedish sommartråd, all literally ‘summer thread’. The reason for the appellation is somewhat obscure. It is usually assumed that goose in this compound refers to the ‘downy’ appearance of gossamer. But it is to be noted that German mädchen- , altweibersommer mean not only ‘gossamer’, but also a summer-like period in late autumn, a St. Martin's summer; that the obsolete Scots go-summer n. had the latter meaning; and that it is in the warm periods of autumn that gossamer is chiefly observed. These considerations suggest the possibility that the word may primarily have denoted a ‘St. Martin's summer’ (the time when geese were supposed to be in season: compare German Gänsemonat ‘geese-month’, November), and have been hence transferred to the characteristic phenomenon of the period. On this view summer-goose (which by etymologizing perversion appears also as summer-gauze) would be a transposition. A. n. 1. a. A fine filmy substance, consisting of cobwebs, spun by small spiders, which is seen floating in the air in calm weather, esp. in autumn, or spread over a grassy surface: occasionally with a and plural, a thread or web of gossamer. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Arachnida > [noun] > order Aranea > member of (spider) > web > threads floating in air or spread on grass gossamerc1325 kell?1523 spittle of the sun1568 air thread1753 summer goosea1800 flake1817 c1325 Gloss. W. de Biblesw. in T. Wright Voc. 147 Filaundre [glossed] gosesomer. c1386 G. Chaucer Squire's Tale 251 On ebbe on flood on gossomer and on myst. 14.. Bewte will Shewe 5 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems 45 Twene gold and gossomer is grete difference. c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 205/1 Gossomer, corrupcyon (H., P. gossummyr, or corrupcion), filandrya. 1599 W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet ii. v. 18 A louer may bestride the gossamours..And yet not fall. View more context for this quotation 1627 M. Drayton Nimphidia in Battaile Agincourt 120 Foure nimble Gnats the Horses were, Their Harnasses of Gossamere. a1640 P. Massinger Guardian ii. v. 68 in 3 New Playes (1655) A Bed of Gossamire, And Damask Roses. 1659 Lady Alimony ii. v. sig. D2 Small threeds Thin-spun as is the subtil Gothsemay. 1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics i, in tr. Virgil Wks. 65 The filmy Gossamer now flitts no more. View more context for this quotation 1777 W. Mason Epist. Dr. Shebbeare 11 Let my numbers flutter light in air, As careless as the silken Gossimer. 1798 S. T. Coleridge Anc. Marinere iii, in W. Wordsworth & S. T. Coleridge Lyrical Ballads 17 Are those her Sails that glance in the Sun Like restless gossameres? 1813 P. B. Shelley Queen Mab i. 7 Let even the restless gossamer Sleep on the moveless air. 1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess v. 102 To trip a tigress with a gossamer. 1850 Ld. Tennyson In Memoriam xi. 16 All the silvery gossamers That twinkle into green and gold. View more context for this quotation a1851 D. M. Moir October in Poet. Wks. (1852) I. 124 The gossamer..Now floats and now subsides upon the air. 1878 ‘G. Eliot’ College Breakfast Party in Macmillan's Mag. July 162 Weaving gossamer to trap the sun. b. transferred and figurative. Applied to something light and flimsy as gossamer. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > that which is unimportant > insubstantial triflec1290 vainc1330 winda1382 vapour1382 gossamer?a1400 visevase1481 good morrow1542 cobweb1579 superficial1579 puff1583 bladder1589 blathery1591 froth1594 bag of winda1599 moth1600 nominala1625 tumour1630 windlestraw1637 vacuity1648 balloon1656 blank1678 breath bubble1835 nominality1842 fluff1906 cotton candy1931 the world > existence and causation > existence > substantiality or concreteness > unsubstantiality or abstractness > [noun] > unsubstantiality or lack of substance > something lacking substance breathc1275 winda1382 vapour1382 cloudc1384 gossamer?a1400 webc1400 comedown1583 bubble1598 anatomy1605 carcass1612 intentional1658 blank1678 ethereality1819 breath bubble1835 ?a1400 Morte Arth. 2688 This es bot gosesomere, and gyffene one erles. 1658 J. Evelyn tr. N. de Bonnefons French Gardiner 194 It will..flie away like the down or Gossemeere of Dandelyon. 1827 T. Hood Plea Midsummer Fairies xii, in Plea Midsummer Fairies & Other Poems 7 Not measured out against fate's mortal knives, Like human gossamers. 1855 J. L. Motley Rise Dutch Republic III. vi. i. 392 A decent gossamer of conventional phraseology was ever allowed to float over the nakedness of unblushing treason. 1871 J. Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue v. 200 It would hardly have beseemed such a poet as Chaucer to bring the stroke of his measure down upon such a gossamer. 2. An extremely delicate kind of gauze. ΘΚΠ the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > textile fabric > textile fabric made from specific material > made from choice of fibres > [noun] > cotton or linen or silk gauze1561 tiffany1601 gossamer1872 1872 W. Black Strange Adventures Phaeton i. 2 A dress of blue, with touches of white gossamer and fur about the tight wrists and neck. 3. a. In England: Originally, an advertising tradesman's name for a make of silk hat recommended as extremely light; hence, used jocularly for a hat generally. ΘΚΠ the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > headgear > [noun] > hat hateOE nab-cheat?1536 nab1673 kelp1736 mitre1807 tile1813 gossamer1836 cady1846 roof1857 roofer1859 pancake1875 lid1896 nudger1902 tit for tat1925 titfer1927 sky1944 the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > headgear > [noun] > hat > made of specific material > silk > types of gossamer1836 goss1848 catskin1857 moloker1890 1836 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) xii. 118 Every hole lets in some air..wentilation gossamer I calls it. 1851 H. Mayhew London Labour II. 43/2 I have sold hats from 6d. to 3s. 6d., but very seldom 3s. 6d. The 3s. 6d. ones would wear out two new gossamers. b. U.S. A name for a very light kind of waterproof. ΚΠ 1888 Harper's Mag. June 139/1 Flinging off his gossamer, and hanging it up to drip into the pan of the hat rack. 4. attributive. ΚΠ 1803 W. Bingley Animal Biogr. III. 456 The Gossamer Spider. 1816 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. (1843) II. 269 That sight occasionally noticed in fine days in the autumn, of webs—commonly called gossamer webs—covering the earth and floating in the air. 1844 T. Hood Haunted House iii, in Hood's Mag. Jan. 10 Across the door no gossamer festoon Swung pendulous. 1852 P. J. Bailey Festus (ed. 5) 12 The gossamer woof, beaded with dew. 1873 Sunday Mag. June 625 The little gossamer thread of hope. 1875 Encycl. Brit. II. 296/1 Gossamer lines are merely the threads left by small and immature spiders. B. adj. Of things, both material and immaterial: Light and flimsy as gossamer. Of persons: Frivolous, volatile. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > constitution of matter > weakness > [adjective] tender?c1225 feeble1340 infirmc1374 slight1393 weakc1400 sperec1440 silly1587 unsound1590 immaterial1609 paper1615 unsubstantiala1617 reedy1628 slighty1662 insufficient1700 flimsy1702 bandbox1727 unconfirmed1752 insubstantial1767 gossamery1790 thread-paper1803 gossamer1806 slimsy1845 unendurable1879 bandboxy1891 the mind > attention and judgement > inattention > mental wandering > light-mindedness > [adjective] lightlyeOE lightOE lightsomea1425 flying1509 light-minded?1529 tickle or light of the sear?1530 giddya1547 light-headed1549 gidded1563 giddish1566 fling-brained1570 tickle-headed1583 toyish1584 shallow1594 leger1598 corky1601 barmy1602 airy1609 unfirma1616 unballast1622 cork-brained1630 unballasted1644 kickshawa1655 unserious1655 unstudious1663 flirtishc1665 caper-witteda1670 shatter-headedc1686 corky-brained1699 flea-lugged1724 halokit1724 shatter-brained1727 scattered-brained1747 shatter-witted1775 flippant1791 butterfly-brained1796 scatter-brained1804 gossamer1806 shandy-pated1806 shattery1820 barmy-brained1823 papilionaceous1832 flirtatious1834 flirty1840 Micawberish1859 scatterheaded1867 flibberty-gibberty1879 thistledown1897 shatter-pated1901 trivial-minded1905 scattery1924 fizgig1928 ditzy1979 1806 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life I. i. 3 Pride and the plague of this gossamer frame of mine. 1843 E. Bulwer-Lytton Last of Barons I. i. ii. 31 [Girls] dancing round him, with..gossamer robes that brushed him as they circled. 1843 W. Youatt Horse (new ed.) xi. 239 The gossamer membrane of..the lobules of the lungs. 1852 H. Rogers Eclipse of Faith 15 He walks through this bleak world in such a gossamer gauze of transparent ‘spiritualism’ that [etc.]. 1853 C. Dickens Bleak House xliii. 418 Such an unworldly, uncalculating, gossamer creature, is a relief to him. 1853 C. Brontë Villette II. xxvii. 276 There was a kind of gossamer happiness hanging in the air. 1857 W. Collins Dead Secret I. iii. i. 154 [He] sighed when the black gossamer ashes floated upward on the draught, and were lost in the chimney. 1879 Printing Trades Jrnl. xxix. 35 A gossamer tissue in imitation of the Japanese. 1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 26 Jan. 12/1 Light-weight [India-rubber] goods such as ladies wear, known as gossamer goods. 1893 Dublin Rev. Oct. 789 The original authors of this gossamer gossip. in combination.1849 G. P. R. James Woodman I. v. 96 That gay gossamer looking youth, whom the young lord called Hungerford. Derivatives ˈgossamered adj. coated with gossamer, gossamer-like. ΚΠ 1860 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters V. 100 Casting a gossamered grayness and softness of plumy mist along their surfaces far away. 1897 Q. Rev. Oct. 344 His [Mr. Austin Dobson's] society is one of picturesque ghosts; of history gossamered. This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < n.adj.c1325
随便看	go to lost go to lovers' lair go to man go to market go to meal go to meat go to meet go to meeting go to mischance go to naught go to nought go to one's account go to one's head go to one's last rest go to one's naked bed go to one's rest go to one's reward go to pains go to pass go to peckham go to peg trantum's go to pieces go to pigs and whistles go to plan go to pot